110,559 research outputs found
Radar imagery of Cedar City - Iron Springs area, Utah Preliminary report
Interpretation of aerial radar photograph
On Generalized Monopole Spherical Harmonics and the Wave Equation of a Charged Massive Kerr Black Hole
We find linearly independent solutions of the Goncharov-Firsova equation in
the case of a massive complex scalar field on a Kerr black hole. The solutions
generalize, in some sense, the classical monopole spherical harmonic solutions
previously studied in the massless cases.Comment: Accepted for publication, Mod. Phys. Lett. A. 13 pages, including
reference
Non-parametric Reconstruction of Cluster Mass Distribution from Strong Lensing: Modelling Abell 370
We describe a new non-parametric technique for reconstructing the mass
distribution in galaxy clusters with strong lensing, i.e., from multiple images
of background galaxies. The observed positions and redshifts of the images are
considered as rigid constraints and through the lens (ray-trace) equation they
provide us with linear constraint equations. These constraints confine the mass
distribution to some allowed region, which is then found by linear programming.
Within this allowed region we study in detail the mass distribution with
minimum mass-to-light variation; also some others, such as the smoothest mass
distribution. The method is applied to the extensively studied cluster Abell
370, which hosts a giant luminous arc and several other multiply imaged
background galaxies. Our mass maps are constrained by the observed positions
and redshifts (spectroscopic or model-inferred by previous authors) of the
giant arc and multiple image systems. The reconstructed maps obtained for \a370
reveal a detailed mass distribution, with substructure quite different from the
light distribution. The method predicts the bimodal nature of the cluster and
that the projected mass distribution is indeed elongated along the axis defined
by the two dominant cD galaxies. But the peaks in the mass distribution appear
to be offset from the centres of the cDs. We also present an estimate for the
total mass of the central region of the cluster. This is in good agreement with
previous mass determinations. The total mass of the central region is
M=(2.0-2.7) 10^14 Msun/h50, depending on the solution chosen.Comment: 14 pages(19 postscript figures), minor corrections, MNRAS in pres
Distributed SUSY Breaking: Dark Energy, Newton's Law and the LHC
We identify the underlying symmetry mechanism that suppresses the low-energy
effective 4D cosmological constant within 6D supergravity models, leading to
results suppressed by powers of the KK scale relative to the much larger masses
associated with particles localized on codimension-2 branes. In these models
the conditions for unbroken supersymmetry can be satisfied locally everywhere
within the extra dimensions, but are obstructed by global conditions like flux
quantization or the mutual inconsistency of boundary conditions at the various
branes. Consequently quantities forbidden by supersymmetry cannot be nonzero
until wavelengths of order the KK scale are integrated out, since only such
long wavelength modes see the entire space and so know that supersymmetry
breaks. We verify these arguments by extending earlier rugby-ball calculations
of one-loop vacuum energies to more general pairs of branes within two warped
extra dimensions. The predicted effective 4D vacuum energy density can be of
order C (m Mg/4 pi Mp)^4, where Mg (Mp) is the rationalized 6D (4D) Planck
scale and m is the heaviest brane-localized particle. Numerically this is C
(5.6 x 10^{-5} eV)^4 if we take m = 173 GeV and take Mg as small as possible
(10 TeV corresponding to KK size r < 1 micron), consistent with supernova
bounds. C is a constant depending on details of the bulk spectrum, which could
be ~ 500 for each of hundreds of fields. The value C ~ 6 x 10^6 gives the
observed Dark Energy density
Gravitational Forces on a Codimension-2 Brane
We compute the gravitational response of six dimensional gauged, chiral
supergravity to localized stress energy on one of two space-filling branes,
including the effects of compactifying the extra dimensions and brane
back-reaction. We find a broad class of exact solutions, including various
black-brane solutions. Several approximate solutions are also described, such
as the near-horizon geometry of a small black hole which is argued to be
approximately described by a 6D Schwarzschild (or Kerr) black hole, with event
horizon appropriately modified to encode the brane back-reaction. The general
linearized far-field solutions are found in the 4D regime very far from the
source, and all integration constants are related to physical quantities
describing the branes and the localized energy source. The localized source
determines two of these, corresponding to the source mass and the size of the
strength of a coupling to a 4D scalar mode whose mass is parametrically smaller
than the KK scale. At large distances the solutions agree with those of 4D
general relativity, but for an intermediate range of distances (larger than the
KK scale) the solutions better fit a Brans-Dicke theory. For a realistic choice
of parameters the KK scale could lie at a micron, while the crossover to
Brans-Dicke behaviour could occur at around 10 microns. While allowed by
present data this points to potentially measurable changes to Newton's Law
arising at distances larger than the KK scale.Comment: 31 pages + appendices, 2 figure
Pixelated Lenses and H_0 from Time-delay QSOs
Observed time delays between images of a lensed QSO lead to the determination
of the Hubble constant by Refsdal's method, provided the mass distribution in
the lensing galaxy is reasonably well known. Since the two or four QSO images
usually observed are woefully inadequate by themselves to provide a unique
reconstruction of the galaxy mass, most previous reconstructions have been
limited to simple parameterized models, which may lead to large systematic
errors in the derived H_0 by failing to consider enough possibilities for the
mass distribution of the lens. We use non-parametric modeling of galaxy lenses
to better explore physically plausible but not overly constrained galaxy mass
maps, all of which reproduce the lensing observables exactly, and derive the
corresponding distribution of H_0's. Blind tests - where one of us simulated
galaxy lenses, lensing observables, and a value for H_0, and the other applied
our modeling technique to estimate H_0 indicate that our procedure is reliable.
For four simulated lensed QSOs the distribution of inferred H_0 have an
uncertainty of \simeq 10% at 90% confidence. Application to published
observations of the two best constrained time-delay lenses, PG1115+080 and
B1608+656, yields H_0=61 +/- 11 km/s/Mpc at 68% confidence and 61 +/- 18
km/s/Mpc at 90% confidence.Comment: 27 pages, including 17 figs, LaTeX; accepted to A
WR146 - observing the OB-type companion
We present new radio and optical observations of the colliding-wind system
WR146 aimed at understanding the nature of the companion to the Wolf-Rayet star
and the collision of their winds. The radio observations reveal emission from
three components: the WR stellar wind, the non-thermal wind-wind interaction
region and, for the first time, the stellar wind of the OB companion. This
provides the unique possibility of determining the mass-loss rate and terminal
wind velocity ratios of the two winds, independent of distance. Respectively,
these ratios are determined to be 0.20+/-0.06 and 0.56+/-0.17 for the
OB-companion star relative to the WR star. A new optical spectrum indicates
that the system is more luminous than had been believed previously. We deduce
that the ``companion'' cannot be a single, low luminosity O8 star as previously
suggested, but is either a high luminosity O8 star, or possibly an O8+WC binary
system.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures,
ftp://fto.drao.nrc.ca/pub/smd/wr146/accepted.ps.gz To be published in Monthly
Notices of the Royal Astronomical Societ
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